Several grassroots organizations dedicated to network neutrality are planning a protest at noon tomorrow on Google’s Mountain View, Calif. campus. The groups include MoveOn, Color of Change, Creedo Action and the Free Press, who plan to protest at the search giant because it has teamed up with Verizon to put forth a legislative framework that has the potential to create a two-tiered Internet by allowing ISPs to discriminate against web traffic on wireless networks while also carving out special exceptions for advanced network services.
Protest organizers will be chartering a bus or two from San Francisco to carry people down to Mountain View, and Derek Turner of the Free Press says the organizers expect around 60-120 people as of now. Protesters will have signs with phases such as “Save the Internet,” and “Google, Don’t Be Evil.” Despite its ongoing efforts to avoid being evil, Google has been the targets of protests before, back when it offered censored search in China. The backlash over Google’s agreement with Verizon has been immense, with the media, analysts and netizens decrying its capitulation. However, as my colleague Mathew noted yesterday, Google is a grown-up business now, and it may have to leave its days of rabble-rousing behind. Which means that its campus may have to entertain the occasional protest.
Related GigaOM Pro Content (sub req’d): The New Net-Neutrality Debate: What’s the Best Way to Discriminate?
